Encouraging kids to exercise

MOST children are a ball of energy — naturally physically active. But there are others who adopt a sedentary lifestyle from very early and would much prefer being glued to the television for hours rather than engaging in any activity at all.

Gisel Harrow, personal trainer at Gymkhana, said that unlike adults, children possess the energy to play for hours without being tired. She said, especially for children uninterested in being physical, parents should consider activities that they can do without getting bored. Below Harrow shares ways that you could encourage your child to exercise:

Try non-conventional exercises

You don’t only work out by running and jumping or kicking a football around the field. Introduce your child to activities like swimming, riding a bicycle, or since they love TV so much, get exercise or dance DVDs with accompanying music, or let them play active games on the Wii.

Exercise should be a routine

Exercise is important for building strong muscles and bones in children. So if your children shy away from exercising, then consider making it a routine. Enrol them in swimming or martial arts classes, or something else of their choosing. It should be integrated just as other activities such as homework, chores and screen time.

Get involved with them

Children love when their parents are involved with almost everything that they are doing, and getting a chance to beat their parents or to be in charge of the game is usually a bonus. So take family walks together, play games together, for example, jump-rope competitions, tag, hop-scotch and catch. Also, you want to be an example to your child, so seeing you active will encourage them to be.

Take them to the park

Hopefully you live close enough so that you can walk there, but if you don’t, when you get to the park encourage your child to make use of the facilities like the monkey bars and slides or just play games with other children at the park. You could consider taking a kite along and encourage them to run around with the string of the kite in hand.

Get your children active toys

Instead of video games and other toys which induce laziness, choose toys such as balls, jump ropes and limbo bars, for example, that will stimulate a desire to engage in physical activities. You could also consider a reward system when your child chooses an active toy.

Harrow said that including a healthy diet with this plan is essential to stimulating positive growth and development in children. She encouraged parents to be firm but not overbearing when introducing or encouraging children to exercise.